


Midnight Cuddles

by Gavilan



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Blankets, Bucky Barnes's Metal Arm, Cuddling & Snuggling, Fluff, Fluff without Plot, Found Family, Gen, Insomnia, Platonic Cuddling, Platonic Relationships, Queerplatonic Relationships, Television Watching, implied or referenced nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:49:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22043602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gavilan/pseuds/Gavilan
Summary: Bucky can't sleep. Luckily, he's not alone.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Natasha Romanov, James "Bucky" Barnes & Natasha Romanov & Tony Stark, James "Bucky" Barnes & Tony Stark, Natasha Romanov & Tony Stark
Comments: 8
Kudos: 55
Collections: Bucky Barnes Bingo 2019, Tony Stark Flash Bingo





	Midnight Cuddles

**Author's Note:**

> Fills my BBB free space  
> Also fills the Natasha Romanov square of TSB Flash Bingo Card 013  
> Thanks to [PinkGold](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PinkGold/pseuds/PinkGold) for the quick beta!

Bucky wakes up with a jolt to find his sheets once again torn from catching on his metal arm. The plates had cycled open and closed as it responded to his nightmare. He feels bad about the waste, but Jarvis assured him that all the torn sheets are recycled when he mentioned it. Which led to a fascinating internet search about the waste management of the future and a conversation with Tony about Stark Industries’ green initiatives. The future is cool like that. 

Tonight, though, he doesn’t have an internet search to distract him, so after a nominal attempt to go back to sleep, he gets up and makes his way to the common area. He breathes a sigh of relief when he hears the soft murmur of the TV. He should probably feel bad that someone else has as much trouble sleeping as he does, but it’s a common enough occurrence in this tower full of damaged superheroes that he just feels relieved that he doesn’t have to be alone. 

“Can’t sleep?” he asks the person curled up in the armchair. It’s Natasha tonight. Her hair is in a messy braid, and she’s wearing an over-large shirt that probably belonged to Clint first, given that it’s an eye-searing shade of purple. She just shakes her head and shifts to make space for him in the chair. He grabs a soft red blanket from the collection on the couch before coming over, wrapping it snugly around both of them and pulling Natasha mostly into his lap. He keeps the metal arm out of the blanket, the hard metal away from any skin it might chill or pinch. 

The rest of him relaxes by degrees as Natasha snuggles into him. She gets an arm around his chest and squeezes, then leaves it there and wiggles further into his lap. On the screen, people in brightly colored outfits are dancing and singing in a foreign language. 

“Music video?” he hazards after a few minutes. 

“Bollywood,” Natasha responds, and sure enough the endless outfit parade has ended and there is now an Indian couple arguing on screen. There are subtitles, but Bucky doesn’t bother to read them. If he decides later that he wants to know what’s going on, Natasha will catch him up. 

The bright colors and Hindi are soothing. Natasha speaks it, but apparently the Winter Soldier never had a mission that required it, so he can let the sounds wash over him. 

They’re nearing the end of the movie when they hear shuffling from the direction of the elevators. Tony comes in, hair standing on end from liberal applications of motor oil and electricity. He looks dazed and exhausted, surfacing from an insomnia-driven engineering binge. When he sees their little cuddle pile he lets out a little happy noise and immediately changes course to beeline toward their chair. 

Bucky barely has time to shift the blanket aside before Tony is climbing onto the chair and settling down between them. There isn’t really any room with the way they’d been curled up, but a tired, touch-starved Tony is a force of nature. He pushes his way in between Natasha and Bucky, pulling Bucky’s arm off the backrest in the process, and ends up with his back to Bucky’s side and Nat’s feet tucked under his legs, curled around the metal arm as if it’s a teddy bear. Bucky’s sure that can’t be comfortable, but Tony has a weird relationship with metal objects, and apparently he doesn’t mind. His cheek is pressed against the plates, though, and as much as the warmth feels nice that’s not going to go well if Bucky needs to shift suddenly, so he maneuvers them all till the blanket is wrapped around them once more, with a free corner that he carefully slips between Tony’s cheek and the metal. 

“No,” Tony mutters, clutching harder at Bucky’s arm, and Bucky chuckles, Tony’s antics unlocking the last of the tension from his rough night. 

“Yes, doll, you don’t want plate prints on that pretty face of yours,” Bucky tells him, and Tony harrumphs but leaves the blanket where it is. Natasha is watching all of this with a look of amusement. Once they’re settled she scoots closer and reaches across Tony to wrap her arms around them both, and they all sigh in contentment. 

By the time they’re halfway through the next movie in Nat’s playlist, Tony is snoring into Bucky’s bicep and Natasha’s eyes are drifting shut for longer and longer with each blink. Bucky has given up any pretense of watching the movie and is just gazing at his two friends. He never thought he’d get to have something this soft and wonderful, not since he got his draft letter all the way back before the war. As he drifts off, he marvels at how easily Tony and Natasha, two people who by rights should be afraid of him, trust him to not only be safe but to comfort and hold them. He wouldn’t trade this moment for all the sleep in the world. 

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for my cuddling square, and was then informed I'd already filled that square months ago. Oops. Had fun writing it though!


End file.
